This is John Batchelor, a conversation with Professor Gary Bass, his new book, Judgment at Tokyo, World War II on trial in the making of modern Asia.

War crimes are much in the news these days, as they have been for many decades since the Second War.

War crimes go in two directions,

the perpetrator and the accuser,

and then the accuser and the perpetrator.

Here, Professor Bass speaks of predicate

for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki

use of the atomic weapon against civilian populations,

there was the precedent of the firebombing of 66 Japanese cities,

chiefly B-29s using highly explosive and very damaging napalm and other incendiaries against civilian

populations.

The question comes today that did not come according to Professor Bass in 1945, which is, what is a war crime?

Is it Winners' Justice?

The prosecution of Japanese war criminals proceeded apace at these many decades later

reviewing the atomic weapon

it's also good to review the decision

to firebomb civilian populations

largely defenseless

is Gary Bass on

what the American public knew about

and didn't react to in 1945.

Still hasn't fully understood the decision to firebom the cities.

...